The Trial of Jesus - An Alternative Timeline by Prof. Israel Knohl

 

On this episode,  one of most brilliant Biblical scholars of our time, Prof. Israel Knohl, grounded in meticulous research on the messianism debates in the Bible and during the Second Temple period,  argues that Jesus’s trial was in reality a dramatic clash between two Jewish groups holding opposing ideologies of messianism and anti-messianism, with both ideologies running through the Bible. The Pharisees (forefathers of the rabbinic sages) and most of the Jewish people had a conception of a Messiah similar to Jesus: like the prophets and most psalmists, they expected the arrival of a godlike Messiah. However, the judges who sentenced Jesus to death were Sadducees, who were fighting with the Pharisees largely because they repudiated the Messiah idea. Thus, the trial of Jesus was not a clash between Jewish and what would become Christian doctrines but a confrontation between two internal Jewish positions—expecting a Messiah or rejecting the Messiah idea—in which Jesus and the Pharisees were actually on the same side.

Knohl contends that had the assigned judges been Pharisees rather than Sadducees, Jesus would not have been convicted and crucified. The Pharisees’ disagreement with Jesus was solely over whether Jesus was the Messiah—but historically, for Jews, arguing about who was or wasn’t the Messiah was not uncommon.

Prof. Israel Knohl  is an Israeli Bible scholar and historian. He is the Yehezkel Kaufmann Professor of Biblical studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Senior Fellow at Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. His books deal with the integration of scientific and archaeological discoveries with the biblical account, early Israelite beliefs, a survey of Israelite cult, and how and where the Israelites originated.

This is one of the most interesting things I've heard about the trial and execution of Jesus because it shows how the account in the Gospel of Mark shows how intimately the author understood the internal politics of the leadership in the Temple (Sadducees) and the Pharisees was exploited to guarantee a death sentence to Jesus.   It is one of the most informative things I've ever heard or read on the topic.   And it's definitely not from a Christian apologetic point of view.